I remember when this country was great.
It was a time when women got their belly buttons pierced and men refused to talk about their feelings.
There were no mobile phones, influencers or the ability to work from home.
It was when housing prices were low, disgruntled teenagers smoked cigarettes instead of vaping, and football players staggered around the field completely concussed for the entire game without medical intervention.
This simpler time – before everyone woke up – was the 1990s.
And one of the highlights of the decade was stuffing your face at Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat buffet.
But like Mel Gibson – another 90s icon – I thought they had all been canceled by now.
It turns out there still exists one lone restaurant in Windsor, on the northwestern edge of Sydney… and it costs just $24.95 for all the pizza, pasta, salad and jelly-covered desert you can eat. It’s even cheaper for kids, on weekends and for lunch.
Pictured is Pizza Hut’s last all-you-can-eat buffet in Windsor
The pizzeria was built in the 1980s and has hardly changed since then
It’s like taking a step back in time: the restaurant still has the original linoleum tiles
Check it out… Pizza Hut’s last all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant
The old-fashioned stalls evoke warm feelings of nostalgia
I stepped through the doors and was immediately hit with warm feelings of comfort and nostalgia.
It’s exactly how I remember it: with staff bustling around the dining room, throwing pizzas straight from the oven onto the heated buffet station.
The decor – with the original signage, booths and linoleum tiles from decades ago – is so out of date that Velcro shoes and hyper-colored T-shirts look cool.
But for me it’s perfect!
Franchisee Santnam Ahuia, who took over the pizzeria with his wife Jenny in 2006, told Daily Mail Australia he wanted to keep the retro relic as it was in its heyday.
“I’ve kept a lot of this Pizza Hut as it was when it was built in the 1980s because it just gives you that old feeling in your heart,” said the 66-year-old Indian who moved to Australia in 1989.
‘I think that’s what people like about it.’
While smorgasbord dining has largely fallen out of fashion in Australia – especially in the wake of the Covid pandemic – Mr Ahuia’s Pizza Hut restaurant continues to not only survive, but thrive.
The heated buffet station features freshly baked pizzas
Franchise owner Santnam Ahuia (pictured), who took over the pizzeria with his wife Jenny in 2006, told Daily Mail Australia he wanted to keep the retro relic as it was in its heyday
Diners often queue for over an hour on Saturday evenings to get a table
While smorgasbord dining has largely fallen out of fashion in Australia, Mr Ahuia’s Pizza Hut restaurant continues to not only survive, but thrive
Some pizza lovers travel from hundreds of miles to get a slice
Pizza Hut’s old-fashioned soft drink machine is pictured in action
“People come from hundreds of miles away to dine,” Mr Ahuia said.
‘From Katoomba to the northern beaches and the central coast – and we even had buses from Newcastle.’
‘People queue outside for an hour on Saturday evenings to dine here and during the school holidays it’s a madhouse. We’re so busy.’
It’s easy to see why. The tucker is excellent.
And I should know because I had four plates full of meat lovers, pepperoni, Hawaiian, supreme and hot and spicy.
“How many slices have you had?” my photographer asked.
“Mate, I stopped counting after the second plate,” I told him.
This reporter takes a trip down memory lane
Pizza Hut’s dessert station is captured in all its glory
A dessert is finished with Pizza Hut’s iconic jelly cubes
Mr. Ahuia recommends apple crumble with ice cream and caramel sauce, and so do I
Although I had a hard time, it is an all-you-can-eat location and I wanted to know if Mr. Ahuia’s dessert station is as I remember it when I was an equally gluttonous child.
I turned on the soft serve machine and topped it off with fudge, Pizza Hut’s iconic jelly cubes, marshmallows, sprinkles and chocolate sauce.
Then I went back for apple crumble… and sat in the car, embarrassed but satisfied.
The truth is, Australia’s last remaining Pizza Hut eatery will probably never be a hit with today’s Ozempic-dependent celebrities – or the scourge of trendy Instagrammers looking for the next downtown hotspot – but I appreciate the five star experience.
And if you want to make Australia great again, you should definitely visit it.